1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic circuit board testing and, more particularly, this invention relates to a pay-per-use system and method for controlling access to a circuit board tester.
2. Related Art
Generally, a given circuit board consists of numerous interconnected semiconductor chips, such as a microprocessor, memory chips, counter chips, control chips, analog components, etc. After circuit boards have been assembled, but before they can be used or placed into assembled products, they must be tested to verify that all required electrical connections have been properly completed and that all necessary electrical components have been attached to the board in proper position and with proper orientation. Other reasons for testing are to determine and verify whether the proper components have been used. It is also necessary to determine whether each component performs properly (i.e., in accordance with the specification). Some electrical components also may require adjustment after installation.
Automated circuit board testing is performed with the aid of a circuit board testing machine. Circuit board testing machines are well known in the art. For example, a well known circuit board testing machine is the Hewlett-Packard Company Model HP-3075 Circuit Board Tester. The HP-3075, for instance, has pins (the number of pins depends on board configuration) which can simultaneously, selectively connect to various pins of a given circuit board for measuring components of the board. The HP-3075 is fully described in the HP 3070 Family Operating and Service Manuals available from Hewlett-Packard Company.
There are a variety of other circuit board testers which are commercially available. The type of circuit board tester utilized depends on the type of test that must be performed upon the circuit board. For example, an HP-3072U circuit board tester is used to perform a simple analog test on an analog circuit board or SMT open testing using HP TestJet software. A test that entails standard in-circuit analog testing, simple digital in-circuit testing, or analog functional testing, requires an HP 3072P circuit board tester. If more complex digital in-circuit testing is required, an HP 3073 circuit board tester with additional HybridPlus-6 cards and additional in-circuit software is required. Finally, if standard in-circuit digital and analog testing, analog functional testing, digital backtracing, fault dictionary testing, and timing set testing is required, an HP 3075 circuit board tester with HybridPlus-6 cards and combinational software is utilized. All of the above circuit board testers are available front Hewlett-Packard Co., Palo Alto, Calif.
The cost of a particular circuit board tester is a function of the type of tests it can perform. Different board types will require different capabilities. A manufacturer involved in building and testing many different types of boards will require much more capability in a circuit board tester than any one particular board needs. As such, it is not cost-effective to maintain a stock of circuit board testers, all of which are capable of performing the most complex testing.
The circuit board manufacturing and testing business is highly competitive. Test resources must be utilized in the most efficient way possible in order for a company to be competitive. Paying for equipment that sits on the production floor but it infrequently used is not an efficient use of resources. Furthermore, turning down business opportunities because of lack of test capabilities does not lead to new opportunities.
This places many manufacturers in a difficult position when it comes to board test hardware. They would like to have full combinational tester functionality (i.e., HP 3075 functionality) in order to perform complex testing at any given time, or to appeal to the widest range of customers. At the same time, they often cannot afford the capital investment of a full combinational tester. For example, a contract manufacturer may have only one customer out of ten that needs combinational test capabilities. The remaining nine customers may only require in-circuit functionality to test their boards. The contract manufacturer would like to accommodate all ten customers, but cannot justify the cost of a combinational tester when the more complex level of test is only required ten percent of the time.
Conventional solutions have focused on price/performance solutions relative to specific circuit board test systems. In these solutions, either the performance or the pricing of the circuit board test system is adjusted to meet the specific market demands. This is a good "point" solution. However, electronics manufacturers today face a broad spectrum of faults produced across a broad spectrum of circuit board complexities using a broad spectrum of manufacturing technologies. A point solution is inadequate to meet these needs. Point solutions result in duplication of similar but not the same test equipment, multi-vendor test solutions, multiple training requirements, multiple service and support vendors and contracts--all of this leading to a higher cost of test.
Consequently, what is needed is a system that will allow manufactures to have access to multiple electronic testing capabilities of a circuit board tester, without incurring the associated costs of purchasing the more expensive circuit board tester.